Gloom Period Mini-tour - January 20, 2001
Austin, Texas, USA - Our members are ready for almost anything as a mini-tour in January. Christmas and New Year celebrations are behind us. It's winter in most parts of the USA. Other car collectors are talking about how they had to store their cars for winter. In general, the old car atmosphere is a bit gloomy, except in Central Texas. When you have over 300 days of sunshine a year, there are bound to be good touring days in January. This year was no exception.
The Gloom Period Mini-tour was well attended. It’s amazing how many folks will come out in January, even though it’s in the middle of winter. We could have handled a lot more people though. We even had two more people join that morning as new members and then came along with us (Larry and Marilyn Atcheson have a 29 Chevy woody done up as a school bus). Dan and Kay Bowen provided coffee and sweets while we socialized and got ready to tour. We toured the Capital Spectrum to learn how computerized color separation works, and how camera ready art work is made for such applications as advertising brochures and magazine covers. This was a little like drinking from a high tech fire hose but it was presented in terms we could all understand. The computer age is certainly clearly visible in this business. Then we drove over to St Edwards University for a tour of the campus and its facilities. We got a little dose of Austin history and limestone architecture. This was great. There’s a potential future party room on the third floor of the old main building. It has a panoramic view of Austin and would make a great Christmas party site. We followed this with TexMex lunch at El Gallo (pronounced L Guy'-yo) on South Congress. Old cars driven included 31 Auburn, 50 Plymouth, 65 Corvette, 64 Corvair (they’re about the same thing aren’t they?), 59 Ford, 70 Olds, 37 Plymouth, and some modern cars. And later there was shopping along South Congress Avenue among the junk stores , that should be, antique shops. Ya shoulda been there!
Don’t miss out on the things we do just because it's winter or cold or gray weather. In the winter months, we plan activities that we can execute, rain or shine. It’s never mandatory to drive your old car. But weather permitting, I intend to drive mine every chance I get. When we make our old cars visible in town, either by staging a show or just by parking while we run inside a business, we are trolling for new members. When people see our old cars, they are made aware that our club exists. Make your own choice on this issue, but DO plan to participate. If you don’t, then you never know what you are missing till it’s too late.